- Miniatures games have always been reserved for lifers. Lifers who spend hundreds of dollars on bags of disassembled pewter sculptures, put them together, and paint them in colors like "fuegan orange" and "leadbelcher." It's a hobby made by the deeply invested, for the deeply invested. Games Workshop manufactures the Warhammer series—one of the most popular names in miniatures gaming—and they happily charge $150 for a starter set. If you're looking for hyperrealistic orc figurines, you'll have to pay a premium—and, no, Wal-Mart can't save you.
This is how things have always been—if you want in, you have to respect the monopoly. That is, unless you own a 3D printer, like Chuck Thier, a Texas-based software developer. "I'm not an avid Warhammer player, but I've always been a fan of the lore," Thier says. He'd seen a couple of models someone made for printing and thought it would be interesting to play around with. So he began making his own. "The models turned out to be a really good way to test the quality of my printer," he says. The detail of his models didn't possess the fidelity of the original miniatures, but they're still pretty convincing and impressive, especially considering he's eschewing a giant price tag.
... But fuckin' miniatures have always been easy to bootleg! You buy the miniature, you buy some investment casting, you buy some white metal and you fucking cast your own. The technology to do this dates to the fucking Etruscan Empire. The reason people don't bother for the most part is the shit is actually cheaper than 3d printing. Vice is all blustery about the fact that ZOMG those evil pricks GDW would charge $150 for a bunch of lead miniatures but fuckin' A, it's a lot of lead miniatures. At 47 miniatures and 96 bucks the math isn't too tough to run... not that Vice bothered: We'll ignore the fact that you have to buy the printer because you were going to buy one anyway so it's not like that counts. You're going to burn a roll of filament, maybe two, cranking out this set, and they're $22 a roll at the cheapest. Then, of course, you've got the fact that 3D printing lacks the resolution of white metal casting. Compare and contrast: I mean, fuck GDW. Ral Partha 4 Lyfe. Or GHQ for those of us who prefer our battles to be real. But whenever you see someone saying "3D printing will change the world!" don't count on it.You can download the schematics, take them to your 3D printer, and have a full-fledged battlefield at your fingertips—all without spending a dime.
You're right that casting your own miniatures was never very hard, they're not that overpriced, and 3d printing isn't cheap. On the other hand, 3d printing has some advantages beyond bootlegging. Tabletop gaming really is one of the places where 3d printing is actually worthwhile. But Vice can make anything sound stupid by being enthusiastic about it.
3D printing still wouldn't produce a miniature as detailed or well painted as something manufactured though. If people want something quality and "rare", they still have to buy through companies. Even if a person tried to produce them himself, they'd end up costing more than what he's selling them for.